The ComicBase Livestream thread!

[Gregory Hecht]

Just posted on ComicBase homepage a few minutes ago today (3/17):

Please Stand By

No Livestream today, sorry!(Still waiting on some equipment to arrive, some third parties to do their thing before we can show off what we meant to today). If things change, we'll see if we can get one going later this week--otherwise, we'll pick it up at our usual time of 4PM Central next Wednesday.

[Mark J. Castaneda]

no livestream this week (notice of this posted on the our main page and FB page).

[Andrew d’Entremont]

I noticed ComicBase Mobile will be a topic of discussion today. Has the new version been released yet, or will it only be released after the Livestream? 

[Andrew d’Entremont]

I'm just catching up on yesterday's Livestream, and I just had to say THANK YOU!  This is going to make it so much easier when I go back issue bin diving! 

Also, I made sure to write a review in the Apple App store. It truly does not suck for me! 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Andrew d’Entremont

[Gregory Hecht]

Is there going to be a Livestream today (4/21)?  I'm not seeing an announcement for it yet.  I know that a new version (21.0.2) was just pushed out, and the last time we had a big update Pete wasn't available for a session that week.  

EDIT:  I see that the Livestream announcement for today's session just got posted.

[Lance Fittro]

Out of curiosity, have you guys developed a strategy yet for Kickstarter / Indigogo / etc comics projects as far as determining if/when projects that are fully-funded are actually fulfilled, how those are dated in the database, and how to handle covers which may differ from the preview art shown for the campaign? Info on "funded" projects that may or may not have made it into the real world seems tough to come by. Perhaps showing them with "Preliminary Artwork" on the covers, as with Diamond issues that have been solicited but not yet printed? Entering issues once I have them in hand is one thing, but I'd like to also be able to use ComicBase (and by extension AtomicAvenue) to help identify and track down some of these interesting comics that were not solicited through traditional distribution channels.

 

I've bitten on a handful of Kickstarters lately that I will scan and enter when they arrive, but passed on many more, not to mention those that came previously before I was paying attention. When I do enter them though, do you guys prefer the Notes to read "Funded via Kickstarter," "Self-Published via Kickstarter," just "Kickstarter" or something else? 

[Lance Fittro]

And a couple of follow-up items for the NFT discussion from a few weeks ago, and whether/how it would affect comics collecting:

https://www.marvel.com/articles/gear/marvel-and-veve-collaborate-to-offer-digital-collectibles-experience-for-marvel-fans-worldwide

https://www.macroverse.com/  is a new platform for the creation and distribution of creator-owned NFT comics

[Gregory Hecht]

3 hours ago, Lance Fittro said:

Out of curiosity, have you guys developed a strategy yet for Kickstarter / Indigogo / etc comics projects as far as determining if/when projects that are fully-funded are actually fulfilled, how those are dated in the database, and how to handle covers which may differ from the preview art shown for the campaign? Info on "funded" projects that may or may not have made it into the real world seems tough to come by. Perhaps showing them with "Preliminary Artwork" on the covers, as with Diamond issues that have been solicited but not yet printed? Entering issues once I have them in hand is one thing, but I'd like to also be able to use ComicBase (and by extension AtomicAvenue) to help identify and track down some of these interesting comics that were not solicited through traditional distribution channels.

 

I've bitten on a handful of Kickstarters lately that I will scan and enter when they arrive, but passed on many more, not to mention those that came previously before I was paying attention. When I do enter them though, do you guys prefer the Notes to read "Funded via Kickstarter," "Self-Published via Kickstarter," just "Kickstarter" or something else? 

I don't think that Kickstarter products get entered into the database unless one of the following two things happens:  (1) a ComicBase user receives the comic and submits the info for it from their database [I did this recently for Heavy Rotation, for example]; or (2) the comic gets solicited by Diamond. 

And, in the case of pathway #2, if there is a different version or variant that corresponds to what Kickstarter backers received, that version won't be in the database unless or until a user submits it.  

I don't think that anybody from HC trolls through all of the Kickstarter campaigns for the purpose of pre-entering those comics into the database.  First, I doubt that there is a method for doing so that is time efficient, an important point given the massive number of edits and corrections that flood into HC each week.  Second, not all funded Kickstarters actually end up successfully getting the promised comic into the hands of backers.  HC has a hard enough problem catching all of the comic cancellations that happen regarding comics that are formally solicited through Diamond and Lunar (and, soon, Penguin Random House), there's no way they would want to add to the problem by just adding in Kickstarter comics before they actually generate finished materials.  

In terms of release date, I think it is just usually a "ca. 2021" notation in the Notes field (or whatever year the product actually arrived in the hands of backers).  You wouldn't want to date it in regards to the end of the Kickstarter campaign, that can sometimes be literally years before the actual product shows up.  And obviously street date becomes kind of irrelevant for most (if not all) Kickstarter items since fulfillment can take weeks or even months for the backers to get everything into the mail.  

Cover art for Kickstarter items are typically based on scans of the actual comics, usually not the preliminary art on the campaign webpage.  

[Gregory Hecht]

Just a quick note to @Peter R. Bickford that you might want to visit the thread at this link prior to this week's Livestream on 8/18 b/c it will be a topic that comes up.  

[Robert Wood]

A question for the livestream:

Which fields in the title screen are ours to add data to and which are Comicbase's  - which will Comicbase potentially overwrite with updates and which are not overwritten?

Ditto issue fields?

(The easiest way to see the fields available are "add title" and "add issue")

[Edison R. Brito]

@Gregory Hecht@Peter R. Bickford 

Will there be a livestream today WED OCT 13? I noticed there wasn't one last week WED OCT 06 either. Hope everything is ok.

[Gregory Hecht]

13 minutes ago, Edison R. Brito said:

@Gregory Hecht@Peter R. Bickford 

Will there be a livestream today WED OCT 13? I noticed there wasn't one last week WED OCT 06 either. Hope everything is ok.

Last week was Hell Week for the message board servers and a few other things, so there was no livestream while those things received maintenance. 
 

I haven’t heard anything about this week’s livestream, but I *assume* that it isn’t happening since no link has posted yet only 12 minutes before the usual showtime. 

[Mark J. Castaneda]

In general, if you don't see a livestream scheduled on our main website or our Facebook page then there won't be one that week.

[Andrew d’Entremont]

I had to drop off a few minutes before the Livestream ended last night but  I went back to see what I had missed later in the evening. I just thought I'd mention that the entire video was still available and nothing had been cut. I'm not sure when you plan on making the cuts but I thought I would flag it for you. Although I must admit I'm glad that nothing has been cut yet otherwise I would have missed the final announcement! 

[Mark J. Castaneda]

just a heads up, the livestream for this week will be Thursday (12/2/2021) at 4pm CT

 

[Edison R. Brito]

Hi @Peter R. Bickford, @Mark J. Castaneda, @Gregory Hecht

I have a suggestion for the next Comicbase Livestream. Can you show us step by step on how to create a new title for Comicbase as I have yet to create a new title and never felt confident on how to go about doing so. For example, I just received my copy of "The Expendables Go To Hell" by Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Dixon from Indiegogo in the mail which currently cannot be  found in Comicbase. Here's a link to the campaign which contains all the pertinent information: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-expendables-go-to-hell-graphic-novel/x/23345703#/. The UPC on the Renzo Variant book I received is 9780578419411 and I have attached a cover photo as well. Of course, if you prefer, please choose a comic that may be a better example. 

Regards,

Edison Brito

 

[Steven L. Dasinger]

The below pertain to how to enter new Titles.

A discussion on how to enter the correct Publisher name (per how CB wants the name.

How to name Titles that are a little out of the ordinary (example: Article placement, Aladdin (Disney’s…), containing '4-letter words', etc.)

[Lance Fittro]

I like Steve's suggestions.

Also, with the Item Description column being added to CB and information being migrated from Notes to this column, it would also be good to have some idea as to when that column will be fully-integrated into Search and Export functions of CB, as well as if/when that information may be added to Atomic Avenue (I know, AA has its own board, but there is not an Atomic Avenue Livestream Thread to solicit such information straight from Pete).

[Steven L. Dasinger]

Lance, referring to part of your post, the ItemDescription column is available for use in Search and Exports (I had a problem where it wasn't being listed and had to create another database and copy my info into it. Never figured out why it didn't display).

[Lance Fittro]

Okay, so if I'm understanding this correctly, Item Description info is searchable and exportable if you start with a clean database, but not with an existing database that the 2022 update has modified to add the Item Description column into (and having created a new database just to check, I see that Item Description is indeed searchable in the new database I just created).

That being the case, is that the ultimate "fix" for this issue (migrate the existing database info into a clean/new database), or is that a temporary workaround?

[Steven L. Dasinger]

It shouldn't be necessary. It SHOULD show up in the converted database. But it didn't on my computer.   Here is my story.

I have two computers: my working computer and another just for testing.

On the Testing computer, where I have a CB 2022 new database and a converted CB 2021 database (while testing burning man), ItemDescription showed up in Searches and Exports.

On my working computer, when I converted the CB 2022 database, it did NOT show up.

I then copied that same database to my testing computer and it DID show up (same database with no changes didn't show the columns on working computer but did show up in the testing computer).

I created a New Database on my working computer and the column DID show up in searches and exports.

It makes no sense. Same computer, same program, different results. Different computer Same program (version/build) and same database, different results.

I created a New Database on my working computer and the column did show up in searches and exports.

Because I am experienced at this, it was just quicker and easier for me to export my data and import into the new database to get everything working.

Really weird and hard to figure out what is going on.

[Lance Fittro]

Okay, my case may be more isolated than I assumed then. Just for posterity, here is what I went through recently through today:

Working computer - Updated CB2021 to CB2022 and converted database to CB2022. Noticed Item Description column added, but took no notice whether it was searchable. Backup computer - still had CB2021 loaded, but used infrequently.

Working computer died. Important files, including CB databases, backed up nightly to external hard drive.

Updated CB2021 to CB2022 on backup computer. Copied CB database from external drive to backup computer. Opened CB database on backup computer, which is now my (much slowwwwerrrr) working computer.

Attempting to export collection information today noticed that Item Description was not an exportable item, followed by same observation of Item Description missing from the searchable Item Fields list.

Assume my problem is universal. Post on CB message board asking for presumed forthcoming solution to my assumed universal problem. Get simple solution from Steve to my perhaps-not-so-universal issue. Go back to searching for a reasonable replacement for my dead dead dead computer.

Thanks Steve!

[Andre JCC Bouchard]

Hi all, Anyone knows if there is and update today???

[Steven L. Dasinger]

I think HC takes the week between Christmas and New Years off so I don't think there will be an update this week.

[Andre JCC Bouchard]

ok thanks Steven, see you online next year.... have a good one.